Chapter 108

“Korean taxis are too small.”

“Thomas, taxis in America are the same size.”

“Oh, are they? Well, how would I know? I've never taken one.”

Thomas Andre had forcibly folded his enormous body into the taxi's back seat and was talking to Laura in the front.

“Anyway, is the hotel still far?”

“We have quite a way to go. You said you wanted to stay at the best hotel in Korea.”

“I didn't know it would be this far.”

Listening to their conversation, the taxi driver could only sweat silently in the front seat.

'I'm scared to death. I should never have picked them up.'

Who would have imagined this foreigner was the famous Thomas Andre?

It was no exaggeration: if the man so much as stretched inside the car, the taxi would crumple like a sheet of paper.

“Ugh, this is uncomfortable. Maybe I should've waited a little longer and gotten a ride in a bigger car.”

'Eek...! Why is traffic so bad today? Come on! Come on!'

Every time Thomas shifted behind him, the driver felt as though his soul might leave his body.

“... So, Laura.”

Still crammed into the back seat, Thomas's gaze abruptly grew serious as he broached the reason he had flown all the way to Korea.

“Have you found Sung Suho's current location?”

“We're still making inquiries, but it shouldn't take long.”

In fact, Laura had been working on the task he'd assigned her on her tablet ever since they entered the taxi. Her cool blue eyes rapidly scanned the information coming in from their employees in America as she spoke.

“It's relatively easy to find hunters' contact information in Korea. The country is so small that there's even a saying that no matter where a hunter is, they're close enough for your nose to touch if you fall forward.”

“Your nose would touch them if you fell forward? What an interesting expression.”

It was neither a mere saying nor an exaggeration.

For hunters with exceptional physical abilities—especially by the standards of Thomas Andre's physique—any city in a country as small as Korea really would be only a short run away.

“By the way, Thomas. Are you certain Sung Suho is the person in the prophecy?”

“Absolutely. The old lady may be ancient, but she's not old enough for dementia yet.”

“Of course, I'm not doubting her. But isn't this prophecy far more specific than her previous ones?”

“Heh heh. It is. Maybe her powers of prophecy have improved with age? Fortune-tellers always look more mystical the older they get, don't they?”

Grinning, Thomas pictured the face of Norma Selner, the prophet who had sent him here.

“We're both getting old, but that old lady really is something. Who would've thought she'd awaken right on her deathbed and get a new lease on life?”

“It really is fortunate. Your one and only friend nearly died, Thomas.”

“Aren't you my friend too, Laura?”

“I'm afraid this is strictly business for me.”

Despite Laura's firm reply, Thomas merely chuckled in amusement.

Just then, Laura's eyes abruptly stopped on one particular item amid the flood of information on her tablet.

“I've found him. Hunter Sung Suho.”

“Oh? You have? What does he do?”

“Hmm. If this information is correct...”

Thomas's eyes gleamed as though he had spotted a delicious morsel of prey. But Laura continued with a frown.

“It says he's... a C-rank summoner.”

“What? A summoner? And only C-rank? That can't be right.”

“This information was registered recently, so there should be very little room for error. And as you know, Korea's mana measuring devices are quite good.”

“Could it be another hunter with the same name?”

“Of course, that's possible. People do share names.”

“I'll find out when I meet him in person. If he's not the one, I can just give him a few knocks on the head and leave.”

Thomas Andre murmured with a grin, looking as though he were on his way to a good restaurant.

'But he'd better be the right one. If he dares make me come all this way for nothing, those knocks might hurt quite a bit.'

Though he had set out on impulse last night, this trip to Korea was extremely important to him.

'The Glacier Dungeon.'

According to Norma Selner's prophecy, the help of the Korean hunter Sung Suho was essential to clearing it.

Norma Selner's prophecies had always been baffling, full of elusive examples and metaphors, yet this time she had specifically given him the name “Sung Suho.”

That was not something he could ignore—especially not Thomas Andre, who had been her friend for decades.

'Korea, huh.'

He sank into reminiscence as he watched the Korean scenery slip past the taxi window.

This was certainly his first visit to Korea. Yet fluent Korean had been flowing effortlessly from his lips all this time, all because of a suggestion Norma Selner had made to him many years ago.

[“Thomas. You look terribly bored now that you've retired. Why not take this opportunity to learn Korean?”]

[“Korean? What's that?”]

[“There's a country in East Asia called Korea. It's the language they speak there.”]

[“Why would I suddenly learn their language at my age?”]

[“If you learn it now, it might come in handy someday.”]

[“Damn it. When you say things like that, old lady, it makes me feel like something terrible will happen if I don't.”]

That was when he had begun learning Korean without the faintest idea why.

Norma Selner had been a renowned prophet even before she awakened.

She had declared her retirement, claiming that she'd lost her prophetic powers long ago, but she remained a celebrity whom political and business figures occasionally visited for advice whenever something important came up.

When someone like that told him to learn Korean out of the blue, he had no choice but to study diligently, if only to ease his mind.

'Though I ended up completely hooked on Korean dramas.'

A thought had once occurred to Thomas.

'Maybe the old lady genuinely thought I looked bored after retirement and just wanted me to watch some dramas. Or maybe she saw my future obsession with Korean dramas first.'

Until very recently, that had been the extent of his thoughts about Korea. But now that he had come all this way in search of a hunter named Sung Suho, he was beginning to wonder whether the future Norma Selner had actually seen was only just beginning.

“Hmm. Korea...”

This wouldn't do. He was itching to move and couldn't stand it any longer.

Thomas Andre's pensive expression suddenly changed.

“Laura. I'm really sorry, but let's go see that guy before we go to the hotel.”

“Well, all right.”

“Huh? You don't mind? Aren't you tired?”

“Of course I'm tired. But you've become quite the gentleman, asking out of courtesy when you'll do whatever you want anyway.”

“Oh! To think I'd hear such praise from you, Laura!”

“That was an insult. Anyway, I've already found Sung Suho's address, so let's head straight there.”

* * *

[... Young Monarch.]

Beru looked more tense than ever. Suho, on the other hand, was simply incredulous.

“Seriously, do I need to move? Now even foreigners are turning up at my house?”

[With all due respect, Master, your personal information seems to be public property now.]

RUMBLE...!

Suho had been enjoying a rare break at home when an enormous presence came charging straight toward him from the distance.

At first, he thought there had been a dungeon break. Or at the very least, that a magic beast like a minotaur was charging toward him.

But it was a person.

A foreigner, at that.

The famous S-rank hunter he had seen on the news that afternoon was charging directly toward him, without the slightest attempt at concealment.

CRUNCH! CRUNCH!

Every time the man's feet struck the ground and propelled him forward, paving stones crumbled beneath him. He was an extraordinary public nuisance.

Suho sighed and went outside to meet him. The man was flaunting his presence so openly as he approached that there was no doubt Suho was his target.

“Oh, what's this? Did you come out to greet me?”

At last, Thomas Andre arrived before Suho.

“...”

Suho merely tilted his head back to look up at the man's face in wonder.

How could a white-haired old man be this muscular?

The enormous man looked at least two handspans taller than Suho, and the bulging muscles covering his body asserted their presence with startling vigor.

'At this rate, he could beat a minotaur to death without even using mana.'

Suho took a moment to reflect. He had felt fairly strong after his recent level-ups, but now he seriously wondered whether he was still nothing more than an ant larva, as Beru put it.

Thomas Andre gently set down Laura, the middle-aged secretary he had carried tucked beneath one massive arm, then asked Suho bluntly,

“Are you Sung Suho?”

“...”

Wow, this foreign grandpa spoke excellent Korean.

This was probably what Ammut would be like if he were human.

“What, are you so scared of me you can't speak? Most people are.”

When Suho simply stared instead of answering, Thomas Andre smirked and finally bared his teeth.

WHOOOOSH!

At that moment, a tremendous fighting aura burst from his entire body and began bearing down on Suho.

“You'd better squeeze out an answer anyway. Unless you want to die.”

Seriously? Just like that, out of nowhere?

What kind of old man had so little sense of propriety?

Utterly dumbfounded, Suho stared at him and replied.

“Well, yes, I am Sung Suho... but what business do you have with me, old man, coming here so late at night?”

“... What? Old man?”

Thomas's face crumpled at Suho's words. Having studied Korean so diligently, he automatically translated the term in his head.

An elderly gentleman.

An old man.

“Ha ha ha! What an insolent little bastard! Laura! Did you hear that? This cheeky brat dares call me a decrepit old man!”

“Uh...”

Wait, how had he twisted it into that?

Suho was genuinely taken aback.

But in truth, not even the most reckless person had ever dared call Goliath Thomas Andre old.

“Fine. I'll find out for myself whether you're really the Sung Suho from the prophecy.”

Thomas unleashed a fighting aura far more tremendous than before, seizing control of the entire surrounding space.

RUMBLE...!

CRACK! CRACK!

As that brutal energy pressed down on the area, the ground beneath their feet began splitting apart as though an earthquake had struck.

Having anticipated this, Laura had already retreated a safe distance and was shaking her head as if to say there was no stopping him.

And within that savage gravitational field, as devastating as a natural disaster, Suho...

RUMBLE!

“Hmm?”

A chill suddenly ran through Thomas Andre.

How could a mere C-rank hunter... stand there completely unharmed, effortlessly enduring his mana field?